On March 4, 1829, the newly inaugurated President Andrew Jackson held an open house event at the White House -- leading to a mob of around 20,000 celebrating his election and running Old Hickory out of his new home. While open house events at the White House ended during Grover Clevelands first term, newly inaugurated Florida governors continue to hold open houses in the governors mansion in Tallahassee.
Thankfully Gov. Rick Scotts open house event Tuesday was nowhere near as raucous as Jacksons event in 1829.
Of course Andrew Jackson did not have pirate re-enactors at his open house.
Its actually fitting that new Florida governors continue to hold open houses. After all, the fingerprints of Andrew Jackson, who served as military governor of Florida after the U.S. acquired the peninsula from Spain, are all over Florida politics more than 180 years after he took office. Jacksonian Democrats dominated the state before the Civil War, usually crushing the Whig opposition at the polls, and a number of Old Hickorys allies -- John Eaton, for example -- served as territorial governor. From Jacksonville, which is in an area of the state that Jackson never even visited, to the float in honor of Old Hickory in Tuesdays inaugural parade, Andrew Jackson looms large over Florida.
Well-wishers lined up outside the mansion to spend a half minute with Scott. Some were well-dressed and a few people were even in tuxedos and gowns before heading off to the inaugural ball. Other Floridians who lined up to meet Scott were wearing jeans and baseball hats and sneakers. Almost all of them had cameras and cell phones to take pictures of the occasion and to pose with the new governor and the first lady.
Festive Republicans, families, senior citizens, Tallahassee locals, 4-H club members sporting green, the imposing Barron Collier High School marching band from Naples, even a man dressed as a pirate waited in line to meet the new governor. Security officials searched the pirate to ensure that Scott would not have to walk the plank a few hours after taking office.
While most of the visitors waited in line for at least an hour, as law enforcement officers occasionally sped by with sirens blaring, they seemed thrilled with their half-minute with the new governor and the first lady. After a handshake, the visitors were ushered into the next room where they met Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll. Once they met Carroll, they were led out where they could get a hot drink -- a bit more proper than Jacksons servants who tried to lead the mob out by filling washtubs with whiskey and leaving them out on the White House lawn.
While there are some exceptions -- Madison Starke Perry and Jeb Bush come to mind -- many of Floridas governors rose to the office from meager backgrounds. As Arthur Schlesinger Jr. argued at the end of his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Age of Jackson, Jacksonian Democrats became populists. Its fair to say a number of the governors from the early part of the 20th century -- Napoleon Bonaparte Broward and Sidney Catts, for example -- fit that mold.
So as a new administration took power on Tuesday, traditions continued. Even as new hands take the reins in Tallahassee, they follow the well-worn paths of past political leaders, connecting the past, present and future of the Sunshine State.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
